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The King is Dead (Murder Room) Paperback – 19 Jun. 2014
King Bendigo is the wealthiest man alive. He has an enormous security detail on his private island, quite capable of dealing with international aggression. But not threats from within his own family. Fearing for his life, he hires brilliant detective Ellery Queen.
The King's brother Judah makes no secret of wanting him dead. He even gives a date and a time on which he will commit the crime. So when the day comes, the King is kept in a hermetically sealed room while his brother is guarded by Ellery himself.
But the King is still shot...
This is the ultimate in locked door mysteries from a classic master of the genre.
- Print length300 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherOrion Fiction
- Publication date19 Jun. 2014
- Dimensions20.1 x 2.4 x 13.2 cm
- ISBN-101409146340
- ISBN-13978-1409146346
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Product description
Book Description
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Orion Fiction (19 Jun. 2014)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 300 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1409146340
- ISBN-13 : 978-1409146346
- Dimensions : 20.1 x 2.4 x 13.2 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 2,275,354 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 22,291 in British Detective Stories
- 54,859 in Science Fiction Crime & Mystery
- 162,412 in Thrillers (Books)
- Customer reviews:
About the author
Ellery Queen was a pen name created and shared by two cousins, Frederic Dannay (1905–1982) and Manfred B. Lee (1905–1971), as well as the name of their most famous detective. Born in Brooklyn, they spent forty-two years writing, editing, and anthologizing under the name, gaining a reputation as the foremost American authors of the Golden Age "fair play" mystery. Besides writing the Queen novels, Dannay and Lee cofounded Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, one of the most influential crime publications of all time. Although Dannay outlived his cousin by nine years, he retired Queen upon Lee's death in 1971.
Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonTop reviews from United Kingdom
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- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 June 2015A good read. Intricate plot.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 April 2015Give a man a gun containing no bullets and ask him to point it at a blank wall and pull the trigger. What happens? Well, in the world of Ellery Queen he manages to shoot another man who is in another room with a locked steel door and no windows or other points of ingress across the guarded hallway outside. It’s a lovely problem, and enticing enough for even the most casual crime reader before you mention that it flowed from the dual pens of Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee, two of the most important figures in the development of the crime story.
Before we get there, however, we must first endure what feels like a lampoon of a Roger Moore Bond, with Queen father and son taken to a reclusive, overweening oligarch’s secluded secret island, confronted by his immeasurable power, influence and wealth, his gorgeous trophy woman and his frank indifference to their mission of discovering who is threatening his life. What’s weird is that Bond himself was just a gleam in his author’s eye when this was published, with Casino Royale a year or so away still, so this setup is probably more original than the intervening years imply. It’s also a pretty fun context for an Ellery Queen detective novel, which is why it’s a shame there’s so little actual detection in it.
The vox populi would have it that (author) Ellery Queen can do no wrong but, while (detective) Ellery’s acumen once again comes to the fore and solves the underlying mysteries, this is really rather turgid once the detection begins (confined largely to one hideously over-long chapter, high on verisimilitude but low on narrative spice). The solution to the impossible shooting is also unfortunately rather tame, one that I had hoped would be a deliberate ploy before the fireworks began, and also slightly unusual in that it seems to regard such things as actual proof to be rather superfluous – surely an EQ first! The bigger mystery is how it takes Ellery and his father weeks and weeks to actually solve the thing...hardly demonstrating the precocious genius on show previously.
The King is Dead isn’t the most successful attempt at a locked room mystery, then, though many may prefer its understated directness to the histrionics of say John Dickson Carr’s grand guignol characters and tone (not me, though; Carr is a master). Remains a footnote in the history of impossible crime, and a weird one given its rightly-adored provenance; for completists only.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 October 2014Not quite what I was expecting but enjoyable nonetheless. A good plot and well defined, sympathetic characters. I will definitely try more Queen books.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 June 2014Book as downloaded ends about two chapters short of the denouement. I have requested a refund. It is a shame you can't report errors like this to the publishers.
Top reviews from other countries
- TMS6Reviewed in the United States on 15 November 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars A real page turner
Great puzzle that you won't figure out. 9
Could not put it down. The characters will fool you with their appearance
- Robert M. HardenReviewed in the United States on 1 August 2016
4.0 out of 5 stars Fast paced and interesting read. Better than I expected.
The puzzle at the heart of the story was very good. The "how" kept me guessing if not the "who." I was rather surprised how quickly everything was resolved at the end. I was expecting some more exciting.
- Okemos56Reviewed in the United States on 1 July 2023
3.0 out of 5 stars Passable
There are enough twists in this EQ murder mystery to make it passable in the end, but there is a fair amount of so-so material in the middle. The story is set on set an island run by a rich armaments manufacturer like a kingdom and is fantastic. It is also (as pointed out in another review) James Bondian.
The King (the person's first name too) is shot and almost dies in a locked room par excellence. The basic means, for all the words and angst spent over it, is not that difficult to figure out, but some of the exact details and motives are. The psychology--and this is one of EQ's later works that focuses on psychology--is doubtful by today's standards and given in a report form. There's a tie-in to Wrightsville that seems unnecessary. Three-and-a-half stars for me: I spent several hours happily reading it (skimming parts), but I wouldn't read it again.
- CharleneReviewed in the United States on 23 April 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars A Different sort of EQ
This novel takes a look at absolute power, corruption, and the violence of politics. The view of personality, and the influence of fathers on sons comes to the fore. It is quite illustrative of modern problems.
- HRH Victoria IIRReviewed in the United States on 1 June 2014
4.0 out of 5 stars Ahead Of It's Time & near on to political turmoil tat still continues today.
A well plotted story with a parallel origin in the political diversity of the era which continues to manifest itself in the new headlines.